VISIT TO WORKPLACE GIVES KIDS NEW PERSPECTIVE ON PARENTS

“I think they appreciate things more when they see what I do when I’m at work,” Davis said. “I just wish we could have take your kids to work day right before school starts or right before Christmas. The kids always ask for less stuff after they’ve been here.”

Life in the work lane: When Kathy Bassler was a kid, she used to visit her construction-worker father at building sites in downtown San Diego and ride with her mother when she drove a school bus around Lemon Grove.

Bassler knew where those paychecks came from and what her parents did to earn them, and when she brings Ryan and 11-year-old Grace to the office, she hopes they’re connecting the dots, too. Because what happens when you take your daughters and sons to work isn’t as important as what they take home at the end of the day.

“Until the kids come here, all they know is that we go into this black hole called work and then we come home and we’re exhausted,” said Bassler, a network management specialist. “I actually make them work. They make copies and name tags and they go out on calls with me, and then they fall asleep in the car on the way home because they’re so tired.”